We first flew to Phoenix (a city that each of us had in fact been to before) to visit Lisa's friend Trish. We took a tour of the beautiful library in Chandler, AZ where she works, enjoyed some tasty meals, and just relaxed. On Sunday we went on a nice long hike at Superstition Mountain. Lots and lots of giant Saguaro cacti. That's the general theme of our whole stay here in Arizona, actually. Out of our 222 photos, I think at least 150 feature a cactus.

Then on Monday morning we took the shuttle here to Tucson... I like it! The streets feature some nice touches that really appeal to my inner planner: lots of bike lanes, bulb-outs, and cool artsy bike racks. Tucson is pretty flat, and not too terribly spread out (not like Phoenix, anyway), and so it's bike-able. But given that we only had about 48 hours, and that many of the things that we wanted to see were beyond the edge of town, we decided to rent a car instead of bikes.

Upon the recommendation from a couple of friends, we visited the Chicago Music Store, which was conveniently located just a few blocks from the place where we're staying. We wandered through the upper floors, which house a mishmash of random, unlabeled instruments and cases.

Lots of Mexican food... On the first day here in Tucson we popped into a random little place on 4th Ave and had some great fish tacos and a mole burrito (pictured below). Last night for dinner we tried Cafe Poca Cosa downtown. It was a little pretentious - very dim lighting, ultra-chic interior, waiters dressed in black - but the food was tasty. If you're there, hopefully you'll get to sample the awesome tamale pie (though the menu changes twice daily, so good luck). Today we went to South Tucson, the Mexican neighborhood, and hit up Mi Nidito ('My Little Nest'). Lots of beef, few vegetables. The tortilla soup was the highlight.

Speaking of highlights, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was outstanding. Part museum, part zoo, and part park, it's a big, beautiful nature preserve in the desert on the western edge of town. Mountain lions! Bears! Raptors! Hummingbirds! Caves! Lots and lots of cacti! Don't miss it.

To close it out today, we went for a nice long hike at Sabino Canyon. In a few hours we board a train for San Antonio. We'll have an Amtrak 'roomette', i.e., a spot on the sleeper car. Should be fun!

I love the idea, and I think it's a great first step in the plan to improve Market Street. Market is one of the most heavily biked streets in North America. According to recent traffic counts, bikes now outnumber private traffic during rush hours. There are alternative streets that are faster for cars; there's really no reason for private traffic to be using Market Street. Market Street has potential to be a truly great public space; right now, cars are getting in the way.

That said, after riding down Market Street this morning, I can say that this change doesn't really accomplish much for bikers. There's still plenty of private traffic; there are loads of cars turning eastbound onto Market at 3rd, Fremont, and elsewhere, which effectively defeats the purpose in those areas. One of the biggest dangers to bikes - big buses weaving back and forth between the two eastbound lanes - is still quite present. The intersections of 6th and 8th feel even more dangerous than before. And worst of all, I think the taxis feel emboldened: I saw one taking advantage of the emptier street by making an illegal u-turn in the middle of the block (cutting me off in the process).

Perhaps things will improve on Day 2. In the meantime, I'm glad for this change, but only if it represents one step of the larger process. The next steps that I'd like to see:

1. Prohibit private traffic right turns onto Market east of 6th Street.
   
2. Prohibit private traffic east of Van Ness.
   
3. Prohibit westbound private traffic.
   
4. Limit MUNI to the middle lanes. This is absolutely key. Someone from the Planning Department told me last week that the MTA insists that they need both lanes in both directions. I find this claim to be absolutely ridiculous. Even during rush hour, that center lane is almost never backed up. With the private traffic gone, the buses move even faster.
   
5. Prohibit taxis from Market Street.
   

Once all of these steps are implemented, we'll be ready for the radical changes that will come with the 2013 repave of Market Street: one center lane of traffic in each direction, reserved for MUNI; bus-stop medians; a dedicated bike path; wider sidewalks; sidewalk facilities for sitting, meeting, planting, outdoor cafes, art installations, spontaneous dancing, flashmobs, yelling about how Jesus is judging you, etc. Market Street will be great!

Come on San Francisco... let's stop dragging our feet and roll into the future.

I started with the big questions. What is a tablet? Who will use it? And for what? If the tablet were a tree, what kind of tree would it be? And what of the word tablet itself? Ta is a Sanskrit root, for "gift." Blet is Proto-Indo-European meaning "to be perfect while lacking usefulness." Will you write on a tablet, or just read from it? Or will you just buy it and put it on your desk and look at it a lot and never use it at all? Or will you maybe carry it around and put on the table in restaurants to show the other humanoids in your tribe that you are more advanced and wealthy than they are, and they should fear you because you have powerful magic that they do not understand?

Apple has been on such a roll, so it makes sense that they're being super deliberate with this product. They don't want such a high profile market entry to be anything other than wildly successful. If people are really buying Kindles, though, obviously there is some kind of demand for a better tablet.

For the handful of folks following this site through an RSS reader (according to google, there are 11 of you), you might want to switch to the atom.xml feed... the other feeds don't seem to be working quite right.

Just for posterity's sake (I'm a hopeless nostalgic) here's version 1:

And version 2:

I do have a whole new appreciation for parents, especially the single ones. What I'm wondering is, when do they have time to eat? It's really hard to spread cream cheese on a piece of toast with only one hand.

I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about, in any way, the social and political equality of the white and black races . . . I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, not of qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarrying with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the ttwo races living together on terms of political and social equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior; and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Pretty awful, huh? It really drives home the fact that every human is flawed, and that the mythical notion of the perfection of our "founding fathers" and "greatest leaders" really is quite the myth. An important lesson, especially given the present day context. E.g., this morning over pancakes I was talking about how amazing inauguration day will be if Barack wins, how I'll be celebrating in the streets, and Rafi said "Uh, let's see him do something first. Give me universal health care... I'll come celebrate in the streets with you that day." How true.

Oh, and who does that quote belong to? No, not Adolf Hitler... Abraham Lincoln.

Here are a few photos that I took from the stages. Hopefully some other folks got some shots that I can also share...